Home builders see it all: our breakdowns over languishing permits, our desperation as we wash dishes in the bathtub . . . oh, and the rise and fall of design trends. Perhaps one year, everyone is ordering bronze faucets for their bathrooms, the next it's stainless-steel or bust, and contractors take note. Home Innovation Research Labs makes sure all that insider knowledge gets cataloged for those of us who aren't so confident about our fixture purchases. We were especially curious about where things are heading for kitchen materials. Yes, we're seeing dark gray cabinets all over Pinterest, but is that what our fellow homeowners actually end up getting? Home Innovation's director of marketing research, Ed Hudson, gave us the lowdown on cabinetry, countertops, faucets, and flooring based on the research institute's 2017 Builder Practices Survey. Here's what he had to say:
"Raised panel cabinet doors still dominate new home kitchens—at least in single-family homes—but this share is declining," says Hudson. "Doors with a flat panel in a frame are on the rise in single-family kitchens. In multifamily kitchens, flat panel doors without frames are the most popular—they tend to provide a more modern, urban look."
"Wood-finish cabinets are still the most popular, but painted-finish cabinets have made substantial gains in recent years," he says.
In the real world, "chrome is still the most popular faucet finish in both the kitchen and bathroom, but nickel continues to gain ground and threatens to surpass chrome in coming few years."
"Overall, granite has maintained its lead as the most popular countertop material installed in new homes," says Hudson, but "quartz countertops had their best year ever in new homes, growing from 9 percent to 13 percent in bathrooms, and from 9 percent to 15 percent in kitchens over the past year."
"[The use of] hardwood flooring has grown in virtually every room in the house," Hudson reports. "It now represents 65 percent of all flooring installed in new home dining rooms, half of all flooring in living rooms, and about 45 percent of all floor installed in kitchens."
